Professor electrocuted after walking into 11,000-volt cable hanging over footpath

By CHRIS BROOKE

Last updated at 23:11 30 November 2007

Blunders by a power company were blamed yesterday for the death of one of the country's leading medical pioneers.

Professor Roland Levinsky, 63, who performed the UK's first successful bone marrow transplant on a child, was electrocuted by an 11,000-volt line which had been left hanging down beside a footpath.

The line, owned by Western Power, had come down in strong winds because a support post was rotten, a Plymouth inquest was told. It had not been checked for nine years.

Two worried locals called the power company to report the loose line on the morning of New Year's Day.

But the warnings were wrongly categorised by call centre workers as "miscellaneous" rather than given the top priority "danger" rating.

As a result, technicians thought the cables must be harmless phone lines.

An engineer who had been sent to the scene in Wembury, Devon, was diverted to a "more urgent" job when he was only five miles away.

Around an hour later, father-ofthree Professor Levinsky, who was 6ft 5in, was killed instantly when his head touched the cable as he walked his dog with his wife Beth and two friends.

In a statement read to the inquest, Mrs Levinsky said: "I saw a flash of light hit the top of Roland's head and he let out a yell.

"He fell immediately to the floor.

"It was not until we all saw the sparks hitting his head that we noticed the cable which had fallen and was being supported by the hedge."

Professor Levinsky, who lived nearby in a £1.5million manor home, was Vice-Chancellor of Plymouth University and a world leader in the treatment of children with immunodeficiency diseases.

As well as the bone marrow breakthrough, he was a pioneer in gene therapy for children with fatal inherited diseases.

The inquest heard that the warning calls had been made at 10.12am

and 11.20am. Professor Levinsky died at 12.45pm.

His widow said last night: "His death was entirely preventable because the power supply could and should have been switched off much earlier that morning, immediately following separate telephone reports made to Western Power by local residents.

"If either report had been actioned properly the electricity could have been switched off remotely within minutes.

"As it happened nothing at all was done to avert the obvious danger."

She said the tragedy had been made harder for the family to bear because no one from the power firm had contacted them or passed on the results of an internal investigation.

Barbara Collopy, who lived in a bungalow near the scene of the accident, was asked to raise the alarm when the professor was electrocuted.

She said: "I told the electricity company I had called three hours earlier about the cable and that someone had now walked into it and been electrocuted."

Philip Davies, service manager at Western Power, admitted the warning calls were wrongly classified and action should have been taken.

But he added: "It is rare for a pole to come down and even more rare for it to come down isolated in this way and remain isolated.

"If it had hit the ground or if the cables had touched each other, our protection systems would have come into effect and tripped and cut the power.

"I have no recollection in 43 years of a pole coming down and a cable remaining live."

Coroner Ian Arrow gave a factual summary of Professor Levinsky's death in recording a narrative verdict.

The Health and Safety Executive is considering whether to prosecute the power firm.